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Some boring fish stuff...
Jun. 10th, 2002 09:22 pmBack from Florida. A nice trip, though the turnaround was a little quick. I had a few more hits from the mystery fish, and it's still a mystery. Here's what I know: The mystery fish has a mouth maybe three inches wide. It can bite through a live pinfish five inches long in one bite, clean, with no jagged edges. It can bite through 30-pound test at the same time. While trout, catfish, snook, and most other fish swallow their prey head-first to deal with the spiny fins, the mystery fish's bite pattern is from the tail -- the front of the bite is pointing toward the head.
So, I have a fish that bites its prey (and fishing line) clean in half, from the tail, most likely to disable the prey. That is giving me two main choices: shark, or barracuda. There are a lot of bonnethead sharks and some bull sharks in the Indian River. Bonnetheads are small, two to three feet max. Maybe 10 pounds. They, and barracuda, would fit the bite pattern. Bull sharks, though at home in fresh or salt water, tend to be big -- like a hundred pounds or so. They do give birth to live young, so I suppose it could be a bull pup I'm dealing with. There is an outside chance that this could be a large bluefish, but I'm not sure if bluefish disable their prey before eating them, or if they're as consistent if they do.
In any case, I had several hits. I used a wire leader, and some of these chopped up fish had leaders twisted out of shape, too, but at least the wire held. No luck with the mystery fish's ID, though. More research, obviously, is needed.
I did catch a three pound, 21" seatrout, which is the biggest seatrout I've ever caught. I caught a 19" and an 18" seatrout, too, which are the #2 and #3 biggest I've ever caught. So, it wasn't an entirely frustrating weekend on the fishing front.
So, I have a fish that bites its prey (and fishing line) clean in half, from the tail, most likely to disable the prey. That is giving me two main choices: shark, or barracuda. There are a lot of bonnethead sharks and some bull sharks in the Indian River. Bonnetheads are small, two to three feet max. Maybe 10 pounds. They, and barracuda, would fit the bite pattern. Bull sharks, though at home in fresh or salt water, tend to be big -- like a hundred pounds or so. They do give birth to live young, so I suppose it could be a bull pup I'm dealing with. There is an outside chance that this could be a large bluefish, but I'm not sure if bluefish disable their prey before eating them, or if they're as consistent if they do.
In any case, I had several hits. I used a wire leader, and some of these chopped up fish had leaders twisted out of shape, too, but at least the wire held. No luck with the mystery fish's ID, though. More research, obviously, is needed.
I did catch a three pound, 21" seatrout, which is the biggest seatrout I've ever caught. I caught a 19" and an 18" seatrout, too, which are the #2 and #3 biggest I've ever caught. So, it wasn't an entirely frustrating weekend on the fishing front.
